By Lisa Freeman
Last week I presented the first two rules of fasting.
To recap, fasting is like a muscle. The first rule is build your fasting muscle gradually. Fasting is a very powerful tool. If you are brand new to fasting, you would NOT just start with a 24-48-hour fast. Start with a 12-hour fast and work your way up. An example of this would be the last meal at 8pm, and not eat anything until 8am the following day. You can build this up over time, and have breakfast at 9-10am, and continue to extend the length of your fast. The eating window would be every six hours.
The second rule—stay hydrated and keep your electrolytes up.
The last three rules
Third rule: What to do if you are hungry during fasting? Hunger comes in waves. If you are experiencing hunger during your fast, that is completely normal. Ghrelin (the hungry hormone) goes up, and you experience hunger. Typically, we experience this as a learned behavior. If you normally eat breakfast at 7am, you’re going to experience hunger at 7am daily. However, we can train ourselves not to be hungry. All hormones pulse up and pulse down. Keep yourself busy for 15-20 minutes. Ride the hunger wave out, and all of a sudden you will realize your hunger is gone. I personally chew gum throughout the day to help keep my mouth fresh and hydrated. Gum seems to help me quite a bit with hunger.
Fourth rule: How to break your fast without gaining weight? Eat high-quality protein and fats and a minimum of carbohydrates. A good example would be avocado, protein shake, lean fish. An important note for pre-menopausal women is not to fast in the seven days leading up to your period. Two hormones, progesterone and estrogen, are falling in preparation for your cycle, and when you fast those hormones are going to be even lower. Fasting could lead to late or skipped periods, and you’ll find yourself craving carbs and sugar at a very high level when you are in your eating window. Personally, I eat an entire bag of spinach every day leading up to my cycle. It helps fill my stomach and it gives me lots of iron, the levels of which drops during the menstrual cycle.
Fifth rule: Make sure your sleep and stress levels are optimized before you begin the practice of fasting. Fasting is a stressor to the body that you impose, which forces an adaptation. When you force an adaptation in your body, good cells get stronger and bad cells adapt. It makes you more resilient and healthier. It also helps your mitochondria. This is called hormesis. When you think about fasting as a stressor, it could be a beneficial stressor to your body, unless you are already under too much stress.
Why would you have stressors in your life? Lack of sleep is the number one culprit. If you’re not getting seven hours of good quality sleep, you are going to have high levels of cortisol the next morning, which will lead to higher insulin. Glucose follows. You are going to be more hungry and less satisfied when you eat the next day. If you have a lot of mental, emotional stressors because of relationships, work, or the news, that can be too much stress for your body to adapt to. Instead of getting the benefits of fasting, stress can actually hurt you. It is recommended to build up a good sleeping schedule and find ways to de-stress before fasting. Meditation, yoga, and exercise are all wonderful ways to help with stress.
A final note: If you have any further questions or concerns, I am available for a consultation—or just pop in and we can chat. I have been fasting since I was 16 years old, before it was cool. It just seemed extremely natural for me to eat the bulk of my food during a certain set of hours.
In articles to come I will discuss different types of fasting. There are many, and the science is extremely interesting.
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